MÖTLEY CRÜE's MICK MARS To Release Debut Solo Record In April 2020

MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars says that his debut solo record will arrive next April.

Mars has been working on the disc — on and off — for at least the past four years. The effort is being recorded in Nashville, where Mars has lived for about six years, with producer Michael Wagener (OZZY OSBOURNE, ACCEPT, WARRANT, SKID ROW) at Blackbird Studio.

After a CRÜE fan tweeted on November 25 that he hoped Mick's solo record was nearing completion, the guitarist replied: "No one will ever stand in the way of my solo record. Ever. Watch for it in April . 2020."

This past September, Mars told Billboard about the musical direction of his solo material: "[It's] not like today's music, which to me is pretty much pop metal and more growly guys. It's all cool and it's all good, and I'm just searching for something that's just a little different than that. I [also] don't want to be living in '85. It's hard to reinvent yourself, but that's what I'm doing now. I'm trying to reinvent the way that I approach music writing. I've got a lot of crap, and I've got a lot of good stuff too."

Mars said that he has been working with a vocalist named Jacob — with some fans speculating that he was referring to Jacob Bunton (ADLER, LYNAM) — on some of his new material. "[He] can be a lot of different voices, and it's pretty amazing," Mick said. "I go, 'I want this kind of voice here,' and he'll pull it straight off."

In a separate interview with "Talking Metal", Mars said that his debut solo record will not sound like anybody else. "Well, I guess it's my own style," he said. "It isn't really blues. My playing has a blues element to it, of course, but it isn't what you would call a blues record. It's more of a heavier rock thing, but I don't wanna even try to 'outheavy' the heavies, you know what I mean? It's just something hopefully just a little different than what's going on now. You're not gonna hear a MÖTLEY-flavored song, except for the guitar, [because] that's me. They're gonna be a bit harder than that, but not as hard as the heavies, like MINISTRY and some of those guys."

Back in 2016, Mars released snippets of two solo songs, apparently called "Gimme Blood" and "Shake The Cage". The tracks, which were recorded at Blackbird Studio, featured singer John Corabi, who appeared on CRÜE's 1994 self-titled album. Corabi later said that he didn't contribute to the writing process for the two songs, but that he was open to collaborating with Mars on some brand new material.

Earlier this week, Mars said he was "clearly joking" when he said in 2014 that he would "invite the world to come for free" if MÖTLEY CRÜE ever reunited following its 2014/2015 farewell tour. Mars added that he was "wrong" at the time to say that the band would never tour again after completing what was billed as its final trek.

On November 18, MÖTLEY CRÜE posted a video explaining that due to the group "becoming more popular than ever" and "gaining an entirely new legion of fans" in the four years they've been off the road, the band was coming out of retirement. They will reportedly embark on a stadium tour with DEF LEPPARD and POISON in 2020, but that has yet to be officially confirmed.